Lifeboat Foundation

By robots?

Read more

In recent years, it’s been exciting watching advances in AI like IBM’s Watson smashing humans at Jeopardy and Google’s AlphaGo AI beating champions at the game of Go a decade earlier than expected. But the sophisticated algorithms under the hood are really the stars of the show.

These powerful computing systems are fundamentally changing industries and automating a growing number of day-to-day tasks. At the same time, AI still isn’t perfect, and we’ve seen hints of its potential dark side. Our algorithms are only as good as the data we feed them. And there’s been a spirited debate about existential dangers down the road.

Here’s a look into some of the topics leading the dialogue as AI technology evolves into its next generation.

Continue reading “8 Takes on the Rise of AI and Its Implications” »

SRI International, the Silicon Valley research lab where Apple’s virtual assistant Siri was born, is working on a new generation of virtual assistants that respond to users’ emotions.

As artificial-intelligence systems such as those from Amazon, Google, and Facebook increasingly pervade our lives, there is an ever greater need for the machines to understand not only the words we speak, but what we mean as well—and emotional cues can be valuable here (see “AI’s Language Problem”).

“[Humans] change our behavior in reaction to how whoever we are talking to is feeling or what we think they’re thinking,” says William Mark, who leads SRI International’s Information and Computing Sciences Division. “We want systems to be able to do the same thing.”

Continue reading “The next generation of bots can respond to your mental state” »

A new report asserts that, by 2025, jobs from the customer service, trucking, and taxi industries will be taken over by cognitive technologies. Yet, we will begin to truly feel the impact of this in just 5 years.

A report that was released by Forrester last month predicts that cognitive technologies will take over some 7% of jobs in the United States in less than a decade (by 2025). Notably, the report asserts that the trend will make itself felt five years from now.

“By 2021, a disruptive tidal wave will begin. Solutions powered by AI/cognitive technology will displace jobs, with the biggest impact felt in transportation, logistics, customer service, and consumer services,” says Forrester VP Brian Hopkins. Forrester estimates around 6% of jobs will be eliminated by as early as 2021.

Continue reading “Work in the World of Tomorrow: AI to Replace 7% of Jobs by 2025” »

I’m developing the prototype of Telexistence Robot by using Virtual Reality and Robotics technology.

Starting today, you could end up in a self-driving Uber.

Can you say under statement with China’s new Radar.

The old countermeasures just aren’t cutting it anymore.

Self-stabilising wheelchair from Israeli technology start-up lets you cruise through town while standing. Matthew Stock reports.

Nearly 20 years ago Amit Goffer suffered an accident that confined him to a wheelchair. Increasingly dissatisfied with what was on offer, the electrical engineer built this — the UPnRIDE. It’s a robotic exoskeleton that helps people paralysed from the waist down to stand tall in the outside world. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER AND FOUNDER OF UPNRIDE, DOCTOR AMIT GOFFER SAYING: “The UPnRIDE device, the whole idea is that you can use it outdoors as well as indoors and in a safe manner because they, it automatically balances you and stablizes you… The concept is new because you don’t see any disabled person rolling outside in a standing position so this is a breakthrough in the industry of wheelchair manufacturing, I’m sure that others will follow.” It goes from seated to standing at the push of a button. A gyroscope — similar to that in a two-wheeled Segway — along with self-stabilising software helps manoeuvre upright over uneven urban terrain.